04 Health and Safety Management Systems 3 - Planning Flashcards
What is meant by SMART objectives?
SMART stands as an acronyms of:
Specific.- A clearly, defined, precise objective
Measurable.- Possible to measure that the target has been achieved.
Achievable.- It can be done
Reasonable.- Within the timescale set and with the resources allocated. Actions which the organization can actually take.
Time-bound. A deadline or timescale is set for completion of the objective. A completion date for each action.
Why is the distinction between hazards and risks so important to health and safety management?
Hazards will always exist in the workplace and usually it is not possible to eliminate them.
Risk can be controlled and reduced. This is the central point of Health and Safety Management.
State the purpose and objectives of risk assessment.
The aim of risk assessment is to eliminate hazards to reduce risk to an acceptable level. The objectives are to prevent personal injury and ill-health, to achieve legal compliance, and to reduce costs associated with losses.
What do accident triangles show?
Accident triangles show the relationship between numbers of accidents with different outcomes. They show the ratio of number of events with no significant outcome to events with minor outcome to events with very serious outcome. Overall there will be a much larger number of near misses / incidents compared to the number of minor injury events, in turn compared to the numbers of serious injury events.
What techniques are used for identifying hazards?
- • Inspections A formal inspection can reveal the various hazards that are present and that need to be considered in the risk assessment. One problem with this method is that it is being carried out in an existing workplace and so any identified hazards already exist. This is contrary to the general principle of safety management, which is that the hazard should not be introduced until after the risk assessment has been carried out and the controls put in place.
- Task Analysis This is a useful method for identifying hazards, since it allows hazards to be spotted before work starts, rather than after the work has started. Task analysis involves breaking a job down into component steps and identifying the hazards associated with each step, so that the safe working method can then be established to deal with each hazard. This can be done before work starts as part of the planning process, and is how Safe Systems of Work (SSWs) are developed.
- Legislation Knowledge of the legal standards that apply to a particular workplace is an important aid to identifying any significant hazards that need to be identified. For example, knowledge of the law relating to work at height will allow a competent assessor to identify which tasks might be defined as work at height and which can be ignored. Legislation is often accompanied by guidance documents which can be very useful in the identification of hazards. For example, in the UK guidance documents exist to spell out all the hazards that exist in engineering workshops.
- Manufacturers’ Information When a new item of plant, machinery or equipment is purchased it usually comes with an instruction book that contains information about all the related hazards and instructions for safe use, cleaning and maintenance. Similarly, when a new substance is purchased it comes with labels and a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) that clearly identifies the hazards of the substance.
- Incident Data Internal accident and near miss data can be useful in identifying hazards. The main limitation here is that a hazard may be very significant but may not yet have caused harm in the organisation and may therefore go unnoticed. External data, such as national statistics published by the authorities, can be more useful since they identify the real hazards and risks based on a much larger population size.
Apart from operators, what particular staff groups require special consideration during risk assessment?
- Cleaners
- Maintenance Operators
- Young workers
- Lone Workers
- New and expectant mothers
- Disable staff
- Contractors
- Members of the public
What are the advantages of adopting a semi-quantitative risk rating system? (4)
Using a semi-quantitative risk rating system can be useful for several reasons:
- Clarity of thinking - people tend to think more carefully about likelihood and severity of foreseeable injury when they are asked to use this type of scoring system, and so give a more accurate end result.
- Consistency of approach - different people can use this system and will get similar results.
- Prioritisation - since risk is now represented by a number, and the higher the number the greater the risk, it is possible to easily separate out the various risks presented by several hazards and rank them in order.
- Timescale - it is even possible to allocate particular timescales to the risk ratings that are calculated using this type of system.
This approach is not universal, but is used by some organisations. If there are clear legal standards about the controls that should be applied to a particular hazard in a workplace, then the use of a scoring system and risk prioritisation and timescales, etc. becomes largely redundant. The only question that really matters is: Are we doing what the law requires? Yes or no?
What factors are used to evaluate risk?
Likelihood of the harm and Severity at that harm
What is residual Risk
Is the remaining risk after adopting the risk controls. It should be only low-level, acceptable risk
- If the residual risk is low then it might be considered acceptable - the existing controls are adequate. Nothing more need be done. In effect the risk assessment has confirmed that the current situation is acceptable.
- If the residual risk is high, a decision has to be made about whether this residual risk is tolerable or unacceptable:
- Tolerable implies that it is not acceptable but it can be tolerated for a short time while interim controls are put into place.
- Unacceptable implies that the risk level is too high for work to be allowed.
What are the Principles of Prevention
Eliminate the Hazard
Substitute the Hazard
Create a a Safe Place – Engineering solutions
Create a Safe person – Administrative procedures, PPE.
What conditions might trigger a risk assessment review?
There are a number of situations that might trigger a review of a risk assessment:
- Significant change to something that the risk assessment relates to:
- Process.
- Substances.
- Equipment.
- Workplace environment.
- Personnel.
- Legal standards.
- There is reason to suspect that the assessment is not valid:
- Accident.
- Near miss.
- Ill-health.
It is also good practice to review risk assessments on a regular basis. This is often done by determining a frequency of review based on the level of risk associated with the activity in question. An annual review of risk assessments is common practice in many workplaces.
Priorities and Timescales addressing actions after a risk assessment
Normally we will use prioritization: the higher the risk the higher the priority. But there are two problems with this:
- A low risk level might be low priority, but it might also have a very simple, quick, low cost remedy. A law court might not accept that something that is quick and easy to address should be allowed to persist; it should be addressed immediately because it can be done immediately.
- A medium risk might demand a medium priority, but that does not necessarily mean that a law court would accept that an intermediate timescale would be acceptable. The level of risk to workers should always be acceptable - not just acceptable after 24 hours of working.
Why a young person might be more vulnerable to risk, and what should be done to minimize risk?
- Lack of experience in workplaces in general.
- Physical and, perhaps, mental immaturity.
- Poor perception of risk.
- Heavily influenced by peer group pressure.
- Eager to show a willingness to work.
- Less developed communication skills.
It may be necessary to:
- Carry out risk assessments specifically with young persons in mind.
- Prohibit a young person from carrying out certain high risk activities (e.g. operating high-risk machinery).
- Restrict their work patterns and hours (no night shift work or overtime).
- Train and supervise them more than other workers.
- Provide mentors to monitor and supervise young persons more closely than other workers and to provide clear lines of communication.
- Provide specific health surveillance.
How we should consider the case of expectant women and nursing mothers when doing risk assessments?
In most of these instances the hazard presents a risk not only to the woman but also to the baby. Many of these hazards can cause miscarriage, birth defects or ill-health in the baby. In all cases where a woman reports that she is pregnant, a risk assessment should be carried out focusing on the work that she is doing and the hazards that might increase risk to her and the child. It may then be necessary to:
- Change the type of work or the way that it is done.
- Change the hours of work.
- Suspend the woman from the workplace.
How we should consider the case of disabled workers when doing risk assessments?
During the risk assessment process it may be necessary to:
- Identify certain health and fitness criteria for some jobs and then evaluate staff against these criteria. This may result in those with a certain disability being excluded from doing these jobs, e.g. forklift truck drivers should have their eyesight checked before being allowed to drive.
- Identify workers with known disabilities and consider what the implications of their particular type and level of disability might be.
Why lone workers are a group of workers who are especially vulnerable in certain instances?
- They may be more at risk of violence, particularly if the worker is exposed to members of the public, has to travel out into the community, or is involved in work that brings them into contact with violent people, e.g. in prisons or mental-health institutions.
- They may be more at risk if they are injured or fall ill. Certain types of work involve a high risk of personal injury or ill health (e.g. confined space entry). In these situations lone working may be inappropriate or additional precautions may be necessary to protect the individual.
Which are the general principles of prevention?
- Avoid risks - where possible.
- Evaluate risks which cannot be avoided – through the risk assessment process.
- Combat risks at source - by going to the source of the problem directly (e.g. if there is a noise hazard in the workplace, tackle the source of the noise).
- Adapt work to suit the individual - by applying good ergonomic principles to job and workplace design (e.g. if people are becoming tired when carrying out repetitive work introduce job rotation).
- Adapt to technical progress - by taking advantage of new technology as it becomes available (e.g. buy mobile phones for lone workers).
- Replace the dangerous with the non-dangerous or less dangerous - by substituting one hazard with something else which is less hazardous (e.g. replace a corrosive chemical with one that does the same job but is classified as “irritant” and therefore less harmful).
- Develop a coherent overall prevention policy – by consistently using the same approach across the whole organisation.
- Give priority to collective protective measures over individual protective measures - by creating a workplace that is safe for all rather than relying on measures that only protect one worker at a time (e.g. install a guard rail rather than rely on PPE).
- Give appropriate instructions to workers – workers must receive information on the correct systems of work to be adopted, and the organisation must also adequately supervise the workers to ensure that instructions are followed.
Collective protective measures versus individual ones.
Collective protective measures are those which protect the whole workplace and everyone who works there, as opposed to individual ones which protect single individuals. These two approaches are behind the concepts of a safe place and a safe person.
- Safe place - the environment of the workplace, where the emphasis is on collective protection through the correct design, selection and engineering of premises, plant, machinery, equipment, processes and substances.
- Safe person - individual behaviour, where the emphasis is on the competence of workers who have received adequate information, instruction and training and follow safe systems of work.
Explain the hierarchy of the risk controls
We can think of the various control options as a hierarchy, where controls at the top of the hierarchy are the most effective and those at the bottom are the least effective. The general hierarchy of control:
- Elimination. If a hazard can be eliminated then the risk created by that hazard disappears. This might be done by completely avoiding an activity that gives rise to risk. The obvious limitation to this approach is that it is not possible to apply it to most of the activities carried out in the workplace.
- Substitution. Sometimes hazard elimination cannot be achieved, but it is possible to substitute one hazard with another that creates less risk. For example, one hazardous substance classified as “toxic” (i.e. lethal in small doses) is substituted with one that is “irritant”
- Engineering controls. Involve the use of an engineering solution to prevent exposure to the hazard.
- Administrative controls. Administrative controls are those that rely on procedures and behaviour.
- Personal protective equipment.
Examples of Engineering Controls
Involve the use of an engineering solution to prevent exposure to the hazard. This might be done by:
- Isolation or total enclosure - the aim here is to isolate the hazard physically so that nobody is exposed to it. (noise protection)
- Separation or segregation - simply placing the hazard in an inaccessible location. An example can be segregate vehicles and pedestrian traffic segregation.
- Partial enclosure - e.g. a hazardous substance might be handled in a fume hood or partial enclosure which the worker can reach into for handling purposes; air is extracted from the top or back of this partial enclosure so that any airborne contaminants are extracted from the enclosure away from the worker.
- Safety devices and features that ensure that the item is used in the correct way and not an unsafe way. For example, interlock switches are fitted to movable guards on machinery to ensure that when the guard is open the machine will not operate (but when the guard is closed it will).
Examples of Administrative Controls
Administrative controls are those that rely on procedures and behaviour, such as:
- Safe Systems of Work A safe system of work is a formal procedure which defines a method of working that eliminates hazards or minimises the risks associated with them. Safe systems of work are necessary whenever hazards cannot be physically eliminated and some element of risk remains. This applies to any task involving significant risk( detonating explosives in a quarry
- Reduce Exposure If the degree to which a worker is exposed to a hazard can be reduced, then that worker is far less likely to have an accident with that hazard. The duration of each exposure and the frequency of exposure will both play a part here - the less time and the less frequently the better. • Reduce time of exposure Many health hazards in the workplace cause a degree of harm that is entirely dependent on the dose that a worker receives, e.g. the harm caused by noise. The dose is determined by two principal factors: –– Concentration, intensity or magnitude of the hazard present. –– Time of exposure.
- Information, Instruction, Training and Supervision Training is instrumental in enabling employees to become competent. A competent employee is equipped with all relevant information and is fully aware of the hazards and the use of appropriate preventative measures. One way that an employer might provide basic health and safety information is through the use of safety signs. Supervision refers to management routinely checking workers and exercising their authority to control behaviour.
Safety Signs
Safety signs combine shape, colour and pictograms to convey specific health and safety information or instructions. Whilst there are regional variations, the standard safety signs are divided into five categories:
- Prohibition - directed at stopping dangerous behaviour, e.g. “No Smoking”. The signs are circular with a black pictogram on a white background with a red border and red diagonal cross bar.
- Warning - tell people to be careful of a particular hazard, e.g. “Fork Lift Trucks Operating In The Area”. The signs are triangular with a black pictogram on a yellow background with a black border.
- Mandatory action - instruct people to take a specific action, often relating to wearing personal protective equipment, e.g. “Eye Protection Must Be Worn”. They are circular with a solid blue background with a white pictogram.
- Safe condition - identify safe behaviour or places of safety, e.g. “First Aid Station”. They are rectangular or square with a white pictogram on a green background.
- Fire-fighting equipment - identify particular items of equipment, e.g. “Hose Reels”. They are rectangular or square with a white symbol or pictogram on a red background. Pictograms must be used on the signs not just text.
Where should personal protective equipment be used.
When it has not been possible to eliminate the hazard or reduce risk to acceptable levels by the use of engineering controls, working methods or administrative controls. PPE is a last resort.
Benefits of PPE
- Can be used as an interim control whilst more expensive or difficult controls are put in place.
- In some situations it may be the only control option available.
- It may be needed as a back-up for emergencies when other controls have failed. It is usually cheap.
- It gives immediate protection.